We can often read interesting “facts” about space online. However, some of them are wrong. The following are some common myths（荒诞说法）about space.
Myth 1: The sun is yellow.
Many people believe the afternoon sun is yellow. However, the light it gives out is white. The earth’s atmosphere （大气层）makes the sun appear yellow and the sky appear blue. This is called Rayleigh scattering（瑞利散射）. The sky is, in fact, as clear as glass.
Myth 2: The asteroid belt（小行星带）is dangerous.
In many movies, the asteroid belt is often described as a dangerous place. It is crowded with rocks that run into each other. However, these movies are wrong. In fact, all the asteroids together weigh only about four percent of the moon. That’s why scientists are excited when they happen to see even one asteroid crashing （碰撞）into another.
Myth 3: The Great Wall of China is the only man-made building that can be seen from space.
It all depends on where you believe space begins above the earth. From the International Space Station （ISS）, you can see the Great Wall and many other man-made buildings. From the moon, you can’t see any buildings, but you may see some city lights.
Myth 4: The moon is very close to the earth.
Sometimes, the moon looks very close. It seems like you can almost touch it. In fact, the moon is about 385000 kilometers away from the earth. If you take a Boeing 747 and fly to the moon at full speed, the journey will take about 17 days!
1.2. According to the underlined sentence, we can infer that the weight of the moon is
3. The Great Wall and many other man-made buildings can
4. It will take
5. After reading the text, what can you learn from it?
Jack: Hi, Mom! We learned about light in physics classes. It travels very fast.
Mom:
Jack: Oh. It travels at a speed of 300,000 kilometers per second. The light from the sun reaches us in less than 9 minutes.
Mom: Is the light from the sun the nearest to the earth?
Jack:
Mom:
Jack: It takes tens of billions of years for light from the farthest star to reach the earth.
Mom: Oh!
Jack: Thank you, Mom!
Mom: I believe you, my son!
| A．How long does it take for light from the farthest star to reach the earth? |
| B．How clever you are! |
| C．How far is it from the earth to the farthest star? |
| D．Do you know how fast it travels? |
| E．I will try my best. |
| F．Yes, it is. |
3 . Tonight our family was going out to play under the full moon.
We first started going on full moon walks for ourselves, because my husband Todd and I, loved them and we needed these little doses of moonlight to stay happy and to function (起作用) in society. But after we became parents, we did this for our children. We wanted Sierra and Bryce to see that there is much magic in the natural world and that most of it is accessible (可达到的) to anyone. We also wanted to show them that it was not necessary to travel far from home to have an adventure, learn, and experience something new. Nearly every month, our family went into the night to “play” by the full moon.
Once we arrived at our location that evening, Sierra and I stood holding hands, waiting to cheer the full moon in its rising. A thin sliver of the apricot (杏黄色) moon poked above the shape of the Blue Mountain Ridge. Everyone stood up and watched its rising. More of the moon came out until it turned into a brilliant orange sphere. Todd explained to Sierra and Bryce that the moon makes no light of its own, but simply acts like a mirror, reflecting (反射) the sunlight back to us long after the sun has sunk below the horizon (地平线).
“Does the moon’s face change?” Bryce asked. I told him that the moon rotates with the earth, but it does not spin on its axis (轴) like the earth does. The same side of the moon is always facing the earth. We never see the other side, the far side of the moon. Sierra said that the moon looked larger and closer when it was rising. I explained that it is an optical illusion (视错觉) because it is so close to the horizon that the moon tricks our eyes into comparing it with nearby objects to create the impression of increased size.
Much of the knowledge that Todd and I shared with the kids had been learned from our past life experiences. If we did not have the knowledge to explain and educate, we looked it up, either beforehand (提前) to improve the experience or afterwards together, after we wondered and came up with a list of questions.
Opportunities (机会) to explore magical experiences and learning is right in your neighbourhood. Sometimes all it takes is going outdoors and looking up at the heavens.
1. How often does the writer go to play under the full moon with his family?| A．Once a year. | B．Once a month. | C．Once a week. | D．Every day. |
| A．Circle. | B．Float. | C．Rise. | D．Drop. |
| A．the distance from the earth is becoming shorter |
| B．the other side of it never faces the earth |
| C．it does not spin on its axis like the earth does |
| D．comparing it with nearby objects creates an illusion |
| A．Never travel far from home to have an adventure. |
| B．Travel far from home to have an adventure more often. |
| C．Good learning opportunities are just around the corner. |
| D．There is much more magic in books and most of it is accessible to anyone. |
4 . We have seen lots of science fiction movies about aliens (外星人). People travel to stars and even fight with aliens in the movies. But are there real aliens in the universe (宇宙)? Most of us think it is impossible, just like fairy tales. But the answer of some scientists is yes. So they have been searching for aliens in outer space for many years. They hope to find life signs of aliens.
Some scientists are used to using radio telescopes (望远镜) to search for aliens in space. In order to find aliens, they have worked hard for over half a century, but so far they have found nothing. Then some scientists guessed aliens might not want to connect us, but aliens could answer our messages. So some scientists sent radio signals into the universe. They hope one day they would be picked up by alien technology. These scientists want to prove (证明) that we are not alone in the universe.
But what should we do if the “alien phone” rings one day? Should we answer it? Stephen Hawking, the famous physicist, thught it could be dangerous to connect aliens. He said that the main purpose of aliens’ visit to the earth could be searching for our resources (资源). But other scientists think we have no need to worry. David Morrison, a NASA scientist, said, “If an alien radio signal reaches the earth from a planet thousands of light-years away, then they almost surely have solved all the problems we still have including the short of resources. Maybe they are much smarter than us, but why do they want to hurt us? I think we can try to connect them.”
1. ________ scientists believe there are aliens.| A．Few | B．All | C．Most | D．Some |
| A．50 years | B．more than 50 years | C．40 years | D．more than 100 years |
| A．are friendly | B．are dangerous | C．can’t be found | D．have been on the earth |
| A．we want to find aliens | B．aliens have many skills |
| C．we want to help aliens | D．aliens are much smarter than us |
| A．Ideas about aliens | B．Protect our earth | C．Stephen Hawking’s idea | D．How to find aliens |
5 . NASA’s space scientists were closely watching a very large asteroid (小行星) that flew past Earth recently.
Asteroid 2015 DR215 was on NASA’s “close approach(接近)” list. But don’t worry, it was a safe distance (距离) away! It was thought to have passed Earth at a distance of 4.1 million miles away. So it was not a dangerous asteroid for us! The asteroid is around 1,600 feet wide, which is three times larger than the Great Pyramid in Egypt. What are asteroids? Asteroids are large space rocks in our solar system (太阳系). Sometimes they are called NEOs-Near Earth Objects. Until today, about 26,000 asteroids have passed Earth, according to NASA.
There are lots of asteroids that NASA watches all the time. They are usually 140 meters or above and can be a threat (威胁). The last big asteroid to actually hit Earth was 66 million years ago. This one caused the dinosaurs to die out. In fact, many smaller asteroids fly to Earth the whole time. But because of their much smaller size, they get burnt up in the atmosphere (大气层) before they hit Earth. Therefore, they can’t bring serious results.
1. What were the NASA’s scientists closely watching recently?| A．A strange plane. | B．A small spaceship. | C．A very small asteroid. | D．A very large asteroid. |
| A．The asteroid is around 1,500 feet wide. | B．The asteroid is around 1,000 feet wide. |
| C．The asteroid is around 1,600 feet wide. | D．The asteroid is around 1,400 feet wide. |
| A．200. | B．2,600. | C．26,000. | D．260. |
| A．The earth died out. | B．The dinosaurs to die out. |
| C．The animals died out. | D．The living things died out. |
| A．their size is so small |
| B．they get burnt up in the atmosphere(大气层) before they hit Earth |
| C．both A and B |
| D．they are afraid of the earth |
| reach, be, go, find, not know, discover, think, call, have, communicate, keep |
Scientists think that there has been life on the earth for hundreds of millions of years. However, we haven’t
The earth is a planet and it
Scientists
Scientists have sent spaceships to the planet Mars to take photos. They have even sent spaceships to travel outside the solar system . However, no spaceship has travelled far enough
7 . In the universe, as we all know, there is the sun, the moon, the earth and a good many stars. Through our geography lessons, we know the earth goes around the sun, and the moon goes around the earth. We have day and night because the earth keeps turning all the time. When our part of the earth turns to the sun, it is day. When our part of the earth turns away from the sun, it is night.
Just because the moon is closer to the earth than the sun, it looks much bigger than the sun. Big things will look smaller when they are farther, and small things also look bigger when they are nearer.
The sun is big enough to give out very strong light. The moon can’t give out any light at all, but it looks quite bright, too. Why? In fact, the light from the moon comes from the sun. The moon looks much bigger and brighter than the stars. But actually the stars are much bigger and brighter than the moon. They look smaller than the moon also because they are farther away from the earth. There are many other planets in the universe. But of all the planets, only on the earth are there living things and people can only live on the earth, too. But at 9:00 a.m., October 15th, 2003, the Chinese pilot Yang Liwei was sent up in to space. He stayed there for 21 hours. It was the first time for Chinese to get into space.
1. When our part of the earth turns away from the sun, the other part of the earth is ________.| A．night | B．day | C．evening | D．Sunday |
| A．bigger; farther from | B．smaller; closer to |
| C．bigger; closer to | D．smaller; farther from |
| A．the earth | B．Mars | C．the moon | D．the sun |
| A．November 15th, 2002 | B．October 16th, 2003 |
| C．May 15th, 2004 | D．October 15th, 2003 |
| A．The moon goes around the earth, and it can’t give out any light at all. |
| B．The moon goes around the sun, and its light is from the sun. |
| C．The earth moves around the moon, and people can only live on the earth. |
| D．Of all the planets, only the earth moves around the sun. |
8 . Is there life on Mars (火星)? We don’t know. We are sure that people can not live on Mars. People can’t live without oxygen(氧气). There is little oxygen on Mars. Living on Mars would be like living on a very high mountain. There would be little air. It may be 50℃ at noon and -100℃ at night.
Many people think there may be plants on Mars. We know that Mars has carbon (二氧化碳). This is kind of material (物质) and we found it in all plants and animals on the earth. Mars looks red. In some places, it seems gray. Sometimes the gray color turns gray-green then brown, and then gray again. The gray-green color may be a kind of plant life changing color with seasons.
Will man go to Mars one day? If they do, they will have to take their own oxygen, food, clothing and shelter (住所) with them.
1. Which can’t live on Mars?| A．Life. | B．Man. | C．Plant. | D．Carbon. |
| A．Because there is almost no oxygen. | B．Because it is too hot at noon. |
| C．Because it is too cold at night. | D．Living on Mars is like living on a high mountain. |
| A．Oxygen. | B．Earth. | C．Carbon. | D．Mars. |
| A．Its gray color. | B．Its red color. |
| C．Its brown color. | D．The changing of its colors. |
| A．Some kinds of plants may live on Mars. |
| B．There is a little Oxygen on Mars and it is not enough for earth people to live there. |
| C．We can live on Mars with the help of carbon. |
| D．There is always only one season on Mars. |
9 . Our nearest neighbour is the moon. In the sky, the moon and the sun seem to be of the same size because the moon is much nearer.
The moon makes the tides—the changes in the level of the sea. The moon and the sun together pull the sea. In some parts of the world, the difference between “high tide” (when the sea is very near to the land) and “low tide” (when the sea is far away from the land) is very big. This is very important for ships.
The moon is very different from the earth. Gravity on the moon is six times weaker than that on the earth. There isn’t any air. During the day, it is very, very hot but at night it is very, very cold. Nothing can live on the moon. If the moon goes between the earth and the sun, we have an eclipse of the sun (日食). The moon stops the light from the sun and we have night in the day. If the earth goes between the moon and the sun, we have an eclipse of the moon (月食). The moon goes into the shadow (影子) of the earth and it disappears for a few minutes.
1. When the sea is far away from the land, we call it ________.| A．high tide | B．shadow | C．low tide | D．gravity |
| A．five times | B．six times | C．seven times | D．eight times |
| A．the moon | B．the sun | C．the stars | D．the earth |
| A．The earth goes between the moon and the sun. | B．The moon goes into the shadow of the sun. |
| C．The moon goes into the shadow of its own. | D．The sun disappears for a few minutes. |
a. The moon and the sun are of the same size.
b. Gravity on the earth is 6 times stronger than that on the moon.
c. The changes in the level of the sea are called tides.
d. The moon itself pulls the sea and makes the tides.
e. When the sea is near to the land, a high tide may happen.
f. It is much hotter in the day but much colder at night on the moon.
| A．abcf | B．bcde | C．adef | D．bcef |
10 . Venus（金星） is close to the earth. It is the second planet from the sun. The earth is the third planet from the sun. Venus is similar (相似的) to the earth in size and mass (质量). It is often described as the earth’s “sister”.
Scientists have learned about Venus for a long time. First they looked at Venus through telescopes (望远镜). But scientists could not see Venus well because of thick clouds on Venus. So they made guesses about it.
For a long time, scientists thought that Venus had water and plants. They thought Venus might have animals too. But they didn’t know for sure.
Then scientists found a way to learn more about Venus. In the 1960s, they began sending probes (航天探测器) to Venus. The probes flew through the thick clouds. They took pictures of Venus up close. They found out many things too. The probes sent the pictures and things they found out back to the scientists.
The scientists learned a lot from the probes. First they learned that most of their guesses were not right. And they learned that Venus is very hot.
After that, scientists knew they could not send people to Venus. But they still wanted to know more about it. So they sent new probes. These new probes took great pictures of the planet. The pictures showed that Venus has plains and mountains! And in some ways, Venus looks like the earth.
根据材料内容完成下列任务。
1—2题简要回答下列问题；3题判断正(T)误(F)；4题翻译划线句子；5题选择正确答案。
1. How are Venus and the earth similar?
2. Why is it hard to see Venus well through a telescope?
3. Scientists began to send probes to Venus about 60 years ago.
4.
5. Where does the passage probably come from?
| A．A diary. | B．A storybook. |
| C．A science magazine. | D．A medical dictionary. |
